


Hungry

by GrimlyFiendish



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Animal Death, Cute, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 11:07:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19294492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrimlyFiendish/pseuds/GrimlyFiendish
Summary: Humans are the only meat eaters in the galaxy. Peter doesn't know that.





	Hungry

Peter was hungry. 

It had been two weeks on the spaceship, since he had been abducted, and the crew had not eaten him, despite threatening to. They sat around the mess hall, and crunched on their vegetables. They flew their ships and stole things. They started brawls, and yelled out bets. They never offered him a piece of meat. No milk, no cheese, not even some eggs. Just veggies and grains. And Peter was hungry. 

He went to Tullk.  
“Food’s in an hour, kid.”

He went to Kraglin.  
“Then eat, dumbass.”

He went to Captain Yondu.  
“Not ma problem. Now git.”

Peter got. He waited. He ate the food. It filled his stomach, but he was still bone achingly hungry. He needed more.

There was no meat on the ship. Not in the kitchen, or the cargo areas. He even checked the doctor’s ward, in desperation, but nothing was there. (He found a slab of a pink thing oozing red in the kitchen, but that turned out to be some weird plant.) 

Finally, the spaceship went to a real life alien planet. He had heard Yondu talking about it with the part of the crew that seemed to be in charge of navigation. 

“Change course for Xandar. We’re goin’ planetside.”

When Peter set foot on the alien planet, Xandar, he could barely contain his excitement. He jumped from the spaceship to the ground, and was surprised when he went twice as high! Well, not twice as high. Only a little bit more than usual, but still. Exciting! 

“Look! I’m bouncy!” He called out excitedly to Kraglin. 

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, kid,” Kraglin said. “Damn high-grav species,” he muttered, but Peter saw him bite back a fond smile. Peter grabbed his hand, and started to drag him off, other hand clamped over his Walkman. (Grandpa always said to hold on to what you don’t wanna lose.)

“C’mon! I wanna see the markets!”

The market was amazing, with colorful stalls, and interesting wares. He even found a Terran stall! He slipped in, while Kraglin was negotiating with another vendor. 

“Hi! I’m Peter! You have stuff from Earth?”

The many-tentacled being straightened up, and glowed happily at Peter. 

“Indeed, little Terran! Please, feel free to peruse my wares.”

Peter looked around the stall. The tentacle guy had puzzles, video games, and even a Rubik’s cube. It also had a single, beautiful Hershey’s chocolate bar. It was enclosed in a glass case, with writing in a language Peter didn’t know on it. (He had the translator, so he could understand people, but he only really knew English, Spanish, and three Russian swear words from the old lady down the street in his old town, so the bar was low.) 

Peter used the rest of his credits to buy the amazing, gorgeous chocolate bar. (He stashed it in his bag for later, along with his Walkman, which he had put there after catching a couple of sketchy aliens eyeing it.)

But there was no meat. No steak, no kebabs, not even a strip of jerky. Nothing. 

The hunger cramps were agonizing. He had to do something. He needed meat, fast. 

He sneaked by where Kraglin was getting a snack, and stole one of his knives from his back pocket. (He made a silent promise to return it later.) He ran to the edge of the market, past the weird houses, and stopped in front of the tiny scrap of alien woods they had for ‘conservation’. 

His grandpa had shown him how to hunt like the native Americans did. (A Navajo WWII vet taught Grandpa Jack) Grandpa Jack said guns against hooves was cheating, but a knife was fair game. 

Peter gripped his knife, and slipped soundlessly into the woods. 

He returned, hours later, exhausted. He was dirt-smudged, and had blood on his shirt and face. 

He was dragging a deerlike antelope creature. 

Peter pulled the animal by the antlers, all the way back to the ship. The woods was almost right next to where Kraglin’s little spaceship had landed, but Peter was tired and hungry and the antedeer was really heavy. He lugged it up the ramp to the door, and into the main room. He paused over the antedeer to whisper the phrase Grandpa Jack told him to say, quietly over the corpse. 

“Thank you for giving your life for mine.”

Time to see if he remembered how to clean and cook a deer! 

 

“I swear, Cap’n, I looked away for a second, and the scrawny lil’ thing was gone. Brat lifted one a’ my knives too- oh my stars!” Kraglin gasped. 

“Quill, what’n th’ hell ‘r’ you doin’?!” Yondu roared

Wow, Yondu’s accent got way thicker when he was mad. 

“Eat’n’!” Peter’s mouth was full, which made it hard to talk. The antedeer was pretty tasty! And he cooked and cleaned it himself! Why was Yondu so mad?

“There’s blood errywhere! What th’ hell‘d you do?! You kill somebody?”

What?

“What? No! I got hungry, that’s all.”

“Then why is there blood on the ceilin’!”

So it got messy. Cleaning a deer was a very messy business! Oh- Kraglin just passed out. Peter hoped he was okay. 

“Umm… I was really hungry?”

“‘Really hungry’ ma blue ass- wait” Hey, look, Kraglin just woke up! “Didja eat somebody?!”

No!

“No! Not somebody. Just a deer. Well, it looked kinda like a deer, if you squinted-”

“Boy, what’n the hell’s a ‘deer’?”

“Y’know. An animal- woah!” Kraglin fainted again. 

Yondu got real quiet. He walked up to Peter, and knelt down next to him. 

“Peter,” Hey! That’s the first time Yondu used his name! This must be serious. “Are you eat’n’ an animal?”

Oh. That wasn’t really serious. 

“Well, yeah. I even killed it myself. It was really pretty too!” 

 

“Yondu cast a look to the little human in front of him. The boy was standing there, fiddling mindlessly with his sleeve. He had no idea what he’d done. 

To kill an innocent being, one with no intent to harm, and then devour its flesh, the ultimate cruelty, was pardonable for mindless animals, but a sentient, sapient creature? It was truly evil. Yondu would be obligated, as a good responsible citizen, to terminate this being before him. 

Peter looked at him with big, trusting eyes, round human irises the color warm green of the sky of his homeworld. 

Yondu sighed resignedly. Lucky for Peter, Yondu Udonta was neither good nor responsible. He quirked a lopsided smile, and wiped some blood off Peter’s face. 

“C’mon, kid.” He stood, and slung the still unconscious Kraglin over his shoulder. “Let’s get back b’fore the crew goes wild.”

Peter grinned, strawberry blond hair spiked with dark red. He was so gonna tease Kraglin about fainting.


End file.
